1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to unique prefabricated cated building panels and to methods for their manufacture.
2. Description of the Background
In the past, prefabricated building panels have been manufactured by mounting rigid board material onto a frame and applying the facing material to the board with a bonding agent.
Another prior method mounted the rigid board to the frame, stapled a waterproof material to the board, secured a metal lath to the board and frame and applied several coats of Portland cement plaster. Prior methods included the addition of styrene-butadiene rubber and fiberglass strands to the cement. Finally, ridge-backed tile was beaten into the thin set cement and allowed to set.
Tile failure has been a problem with prior types of panels. Expansion and contraction due to changing weather conditions, and movement due to earth tremors and quakes, wind, shifting and settling of the building, sonic booms, freezing in the presence of moisture and the like may stress the support structure for the building's facing sufficiently to bend and separate the support structure from the rest of the panel causing the facing to crack or disbond. The unique strength and flexibility of the building panels disclosed in the present invention allows greater stress to be placed on the panel while maintaining deflection of the support frame and differential movement between the frame and the rest of the panel within tolerable limits, thereby lessening the possibility of cracking and disbonding of the facing material.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,666,606 to Stokes disclosed a manufactured composite membrane sheet without a support structure which was adhesively bonded directly onto an architectural substrate. The system was used for outdoor and indoor tile flooring as well as for indoor walls. The system comprised a rubber elastomeric layer, such as polychloroprene rubber, bonded to a sheet of synthetic polymer resin including a plasticizer, a stabilizer and a synthetic resin fiber scrim embedded therein.
The use of an elastomeric layer to isolate tile from substrate movement improves the art by lessening the possibility of impairment of the membrane and tile system. However, in application of facing material to multistoried buildings greater strength of the paneling system must be achieved. It would be desirable to develop a prefabricated building panel which incorporated both superior strength and cushioning effect. This unique and useful product and method is provided with the present invention.